Wakin’ the dead at the Dream Cruise

Posted by hpayne on August 15, 2015

Mike Oginsky’s 1967 Camaro

Call ’em the Wake Up the Dead Club.

For nearly the length of the Woodward between 12 Mile and 13 Mile, some of the Dream Cruiser’s loudest, prettiest muscle cars line up in reserved spots year after year. Right in front of Berkley’s Roseland Park Cemetery.

“Want to hear how she sounds?” Rob Metzger, 63, from Livonia asks me as he turns the key on his bright pink – yes, pink – 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. VROOOOOM! goes the 340 cid, six-pack under the hood, and I swear I hear the tops pop off a dozen caskets behind us.

I’ve decided Roseland is where I want to be buried.

Metzger drag-raced the big Barracuda back in its heyday to an 11-second quarter mile time. Or about what a Dodge Hellcat will do today. Not bad for an old stocker.

A few plots – er, parking spots – down from Metzger, the purple, red, blue and black paint job on Mike Oginsky’s 1967 Camaro is as loud as the 500-horsepower V-8 within. Oginsky knows his colors. He’s a retired paint engineer for General Motors. Next to his ’67 (you know the ’67s by the vented windows), is a tiny pedal car for his granddaughter. With the same paint scheme, natch.

The symphony wouldn’t be complete without a Corvette. Greg Pelton’s bright blue, 1970 Stingray does the job. With its side pipes exhausting the 5.7-liter monster within, it makes beautiful music. The classic shape of the ’70 is a reminder of why Chevy waited another four generations – and 45 years – after the C3 chassis to give the latest, C7 model the name Stingray.

It takes a special kind of car.

Greg Pelton’s bright blue, 1970 Stingray.

 

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